We are in the “spoilt for choice” phase of SoS. I’m wishing I could store a few up for the lean times. I doubt I would get away with it. The garden has benefited from a fine sprinkling of rain and some intermittent sunshine. That is all we can ask for. The weather/plants, plants/the weather, is there no end to my conversational skills? For more of this fine rhetoric pop over to Jim’s site and you will not be disappointed. Now is time to put our minds to the task in hand: Six on Saturday. Here are six and I believe that it is Saturday.
Let’s start with a bang. Helenium “Short and Sassy’. No misnomers there and I love it.
Long ago I was in Woolworths in Bedminster, Bristol, possibly looking for Pick ‘n’ Mix, the latest 45rpm or some grout. A woman rushed in waving her arms in panic. “Don’t leave the shop, the streets are full of swarming locust” she cried. I told who wanted to hear “They are only ants, looking for a new home, nothing to be worried about”. Did they listen? Locust make a much better story.
The locust that live in the greenhouse are just thinking about finding pastures new. Good luck with that.
Now a pretty in pink watsonia. Not the colour I would normally choose, but often with watsonia grown from seed we get what we get. No complaints here.
Onto a rather blurry Red Admiral supping on the scabious. Warms the cockles.
When it comes to self-seeders there are none more dramatic than a sunflower. I have planted several multi-headed red ones about the garden but others have magically appeared. A casting vote from a busy bee won this by-election.
Finally, a match made in monochrome heaven. A white agapanthus from Welsh John alongside Dahlia ‘Veronne’s Obsidian’. A happy accident.
That is your lot for this week. See you next time.
Off The Edge Gardening 
Ooh, I love the watsonia, I don’t think I know that flower. My ants all took flight one evening this week, I was watching them from the window head off.
Could I (badger) ask, you to be a guest on my Enchanting Gardens series that I run on a Sunday? Sorry to ask here, but I couldn’t spot another way to contact you. If you are interested I have a ‘contact me’ spot on my blog. Thanks in advance, Rosie
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They are quite easy from seed, you should give them a go. The weather must be just right for the ants, today would be quite different. And of course, I will pop over.
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Brilliant, thanks.
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I already had 2 varieties of heleniums on my wish list but I think I will add yours. They are very pretty flowers when they are in a group, which is the case for yours.
Today a sunflower is featured in my Six too
I didn’t add the Dahlia ‘Verrone’s Obsidian’ but it’s also in the garden and gives very good results. It was the first to bloom and it doesn’t stop.
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I love how us SoSers seem to garden in tandem sometimes. Such good taste!
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I have never tried watsonia from seed, this one is fabulous, I love the colour. But talking of seed, I got some beautiful children from Veronne’s Obsidian one year. Your heleniums are gorgeous, I’ve never had any success growing them which is shameful; they are only daisies after all.
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I gathered some seed from my other honkas and they all seem to be exactly the same. A couple are yet to flower so we will see. Perhaps in your new garden …… 🙂
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I had lots of different dahlias so there was a bigger gene pool in my last garden. I had ‘Night Butterfly’ which seemed to come out in a lot of seedlings. But I love the way they are all so different and you never know what you will get.
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I think I need more Watsonias, I need to start a seed list somewhere I can find it.
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Beautiful shot of the Red Admiral. I forgive that it is a little blurry.
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Thank you, it was flitting about as butterflies are wont!
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The watsonia is divine, such a beautiful colour. Your helenium is just what I need at the front of my sunset border, lovely plant. Like your butterfly too!
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Yes, definite sunset flowers!
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Bee, butterfly and ants? You’ve beaten me. I have a flying ants in town tale too. I was sitting on a bench outside M&S quaffing a can of lovely chilled orange pop, when it occurred to me that the ‘juicy bit’ I’d just chewed was probably not orange. I think you can imagine the rest.
I love the pale pink watsonia and extra special for being grown from seed.
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Ha ha! With added protein 😀
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Short and Sassy, I like that and like Fred will be looking out for it. The ants must have synchronised their flights this week. The rain is a good send and making my mulch look lovely. Have a good week you too Sis.
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It is a good one, I’ve got another just about to burst, perhaps next week!
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A lovely selection. The Watsonia is very pretty indeed. I’ve not heard of it before. I must resist Helenium though, however tempting – the slimey ones finished off my last one.
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Bloomin’ slimies!
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One is simply minded to comment that, somewhere, there should be at least 3 “short-n-sassy” plants on my garden but, looking out today through the rain, I cannot discern a single flower. Are mine tardy? 🤔 I will investigate further on Tuesday. 😎
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Yours are dead. They were in the choisya edifice. I checked the other day. I think they were eaten by alstromeria.
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Helenium “Short and Sassy’ was exceedingly short lived in my garden. The S&S made sure of that when it appeared for the second year. As for flying ants, they always come into our house in June. No idea why!
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You obviously are an Ant trendsetter. The S&S have yet to find our garden, in great numbers anyway. Fingers crossed it says that way.
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My six were about what is blooming late this summer, and, although not cited yet, our lily of the Nile are quite late. By now, the first three white blooms ever to bloom in our landscapes here should be about like yours. (I have grown the same cultivar since the early 1990s, but have never grown them here.) They should have been well into bloom for Independence Day. Your Watsonia is nice, but quite different from our feral Watsonia. Of course, ours may not be as feral as it seems, and could have grown from a stray corm, rather than from seed. The best colony of Watsonia that I have ever seen, which happens to resemble our salmon colored feral sort, happens to be on the edge of Highway 1 just north of, . . . Watsonville!
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The watsonia is lovely!
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Like the others, I covet the Watsonia. Verone’s Obsidian is a Dahlia I wouldn’t be without, such a generous flowered. Does your ‘Short and Sassy’ spread outwards? Mine returns each year but doesn’t seem to get any larger.
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Short and Sassy seems to be about the same as the end of last year, it doesn’t have a lot of room to spread into though!
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That could be the problem here as well 😂
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